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Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Book Review ~ The Map That Leads to You by J.P. Monninger

The Map That Leads to You

by J.P. Monninger

"Romantic
and unforgettable." –Nicholas Sparks

A
romantic, vivid novel that takes place in the tender time of a young woman’s
life: Heather has graduated from college and is traveling around Europe with
her two best friends. She’s left school responsibility behind and adult
responsibility is looming, but this is her one, ONE last summer to be free.
Heather doesn’t expect to even meet Jack, let alone fall in love with him. Jack
is an enigmatic Vermonter a few years older than she is, who is following his
grandfather’s journal to various cities around Europe. But in the same way that
forces are bringing Jack and Heather together, life and duty are pushing them
apart. And Jack has a secret that is going to change absolutely everything.

“It is the last great minute before he walks
into your life, but you don't know that yet, can't know. Later, though, you
will try to imagine where he was in this exact instant, when he had turned and
started to travel toward you, you to him, and how the world around both of you
took no notice. Your life would not be the same, but that was all waiting, up
in the air, all fate and chance and inevitability.”

Heather has her whole
life planned out and after college she is entering the corporate world and
plans to make it ‘big’ in New York. After college graduation, she
and her two best friends take a summer long vacation, touring Europe - making
memories and most of all have fun before life intervenes and responsibilities
are imminent.

Jack is also touring
Europe, but he is following his grandfather’s journal in which he recorded his
travels after WWII. The site’s his grandfather visited could not be
found in any tour guide, and they are all off the well-traveled roads, but Jack
needs to take this journey to understand more of his grandfather.

When Heather and Jack
meet on a train, neither could imagine how well they would ‘click’. As
the two travel together, they never imagined that they would fall in love –
making plans for the future and treasuring each moment that they are together.

“Our eyes locked. It wasn’t on a
mountaintop, or beside a blue ocean, or in a flowered meadow. It was
in the center of Kraków. I couldn’t speak for him, but I wasn’t
feeling particularly in love, or gushy, or anything else. But then
he turned to me and smiled, and I smiled back. We didn’t say
anything. The world kept going on around us, I was aware of that,
but then the world no longer mattered. What mattered was Jack’s gaze
and his shy, soft smile that invited me in, invited me to share the pleasure of
being here, in a foreign city, being in love, or the beginning of love, and
knowing that we had the world by the goddamn tail if we wanted it, wanted each
other, stayed with each other.”

With such a romantic
story, I just knew that something tragic would happen, and I kept waiting for
it – even having a box of tissues nearby, you know…just in case. Heather
and Jack were just perfect together, and I could feel the love that they shared
and I did not want anything interring with that love. While I won’t
spoil the story for anyone, something did happen and it was tragic, but in the
end the whole story was just so tragically beautiful, my heart was both happy
and sad but amazingly enough I was completely satisfied with this love story and only happy tears fell from my eyes.
Jack had given Heather hope and taught her to trust that life held surprises if
she allowed it to reveal itself. She didn’t need photographs or
social media posts to clutter her life. She just needed to give
herself to the situation – live in the moment and love every minute of that
moment. That was Jack’s great lesson and one she would hold dear to
her heart for her the rest of her life.

“To say we find love is a misuse of the word
find. Love finds us, passes through us, continues. We
cannot find it any more than we can live without love. Love is
essential and as common as bread. If you look for it, you will see
it everywhere, and you will never be without it."

I absolutely LOVED this
story! The Map That Leads to You is an utterly exquisite
story. It’s romantic without being cheesy and is a story that will
remain in my thoughts and in my heart for quite some time. The
author’s writing is like a well-orchestrated symphony – the words flowing
effortlessly and beautifully throughout. With stunning attention to
details and vivid descriptions, it was so easy to become engrossed in the story
and I found myself completely captivated with each and every word.

The Map That Leads to
You is a really sweet
and touching story that is by far my most favorite book this year. J.P.
Monniger truly has an amazing talent and is destined to take the literary world
by storm with his outstanding storytelling abilities. Mr.
Monniger is an author that will now be on my radar and I can’t wait to see what
he presents his readers next. If this one book is any indication I
have a feeling it will be epic!

I am giving this book 5
well deserved stars but really that is just not enough for this book because it
was just that amazing.

*The quotes in the
review are from an Advance Readers’ Edition and subject to change.

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